


Chains

by Insignias



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-24
Updated: 2012-10-24
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:49:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insignias/pseuds/Insignias
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You can't be left alone for even a moment, can you?” Someone croons, soft and gentle just beyond his reach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chains

**Author's Note:**

> A (heavily) edited drabble that was originally for an illustration by 7ns. She has since deleted this image and respecting this, I have not linked it. Can be read without seeing it.
> 
> This is mostly gratuitous nonsense, though. So I hope you don't mind the word vomit.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> *Revised on 3/13/2014.

“Tsk, tsk, Thor. Just look at what’s become of you.”

Soft, sure footsteps thump closer to him across the cracked stone floor. Thor tries to raise his head, to move, to fight, but each twitch of movement sparks liquid fire across his nerves. His body can only shudder and convulse in violent, agonizing protest. His arms are chained above him, spread-eagle, muscles taunt and aching at the strain. Old, clotted blood smears his field of vision; the cloying stench of rot and fetid waste choke his nose, stutter his labored breath. How long has he suffered here in this prison? Mere hours? Days? He cannot say, cannot even speak, for his tongue is too thick for movement; his throat too dry with thirst.

Mighty Thor, Aesir of Thunder, Son of Odin, has been brought to his knees. 

The footsteps stop before him. The base of his skull begins to throb, each beat a call to war. Boots step into his swimming vision, stay real.

Black. His wavering mind supplies, thoughts drawn thin, They are black.

An inch closer and he could bite. Even now he rebels at his state, at his prison; this brutal indignity. He bares his teeth and parched lips crack open, their thick red-black blood sluggish in its trek down his matted beard to drip from his chin. 

Breath sluices back into his chest and with it the bright-sweet agony.

Someone brushes his filthy hair from his face. Thor can only groan, for even this touch ignites hellfire across his battered skin.

“You can't be left alone for even a moment, can you?” Someone croons, soft and gentle just beyond his reach. He closes his eyes to it, hears his mother’s sweet voice. The quiet evenings at her side; the tales of adventure woven like the finest tapestries with her words. He dreams his head lies on her lap, as her fingers skim through his hair. His brother perched by his side, quiet and content as he only ever was within their mother's chambers. 

The touch returns, and with it fire, and his mind comes flooding back.

“You are like a child.” The voice sighs; a dramatic, incredulous sound that rakes his ears and inflames his cheeks with copper fire. “A second to yourself and you blunder into trouble. You're far too old to play savior, dear brother, what ever would your mother say?"

Thor bellows, betrayed by temperament and cracked and trembling mind. His chains jostle and strain, his great strength brought to bear in one last feat, but his bindings hold fast; their enchantments slithering oil-slick afresh across their corroded surface. 

"Loki." He breathes at last, drawn fast and held as the form before him--his brother, of course it is his brother, it only ever is--chortles with foul delight. 

"Brother," He begs, useless and torn open, "help me." There is nothing else of him. Nothing left but to hope and trust and beg. For his brother to still be his enough to save him from this. From everything, as Thor would do for him.

 

Fingers brush across his akin; skirt his cheekbones, slide down the breadth of his nose. They press to his dry, cracked lips, pausing as his breath shudders out in a quiet, broken exhale. They slip back up his unkempt, bearded cheeks; cradle his head in the breadth of cool palms.

"What am I supposed to do with you? Thor, beloved son of Odin, heir to Asgard's throne. What am I supposed to do?”

And in those words Thor hears his brother; small, and shy and quick. Brilliant even as a babe; his forest-green eyes and snake-sly smile, the darling of their mother. He remembers their first lessons; his frustration and Loki's quiet patience despite his chiding words, how it was only by him that Thor ever memorized those blasted speeches and all for his brother's praise. It was all only for him.

"Come home." Thor groans, imploring and honest as ever, "Loki, just come home." 

Loki blinks at him, surprise flickering in the corners of his mouth and the flutter of his gaze; stuttering across his brother's features as if Thor could hide anything from him. Then he laughs, sudden and low, as if Thor has done some quaint trick. "Do you ever listen? Or is your brain so miniscule, your intelligence so diminished from your battles, that you have forgotten?" 

Fingers snatch in his hair, snarl deep in tangled strands and pull tight. His head is drawn back to bare his throat. He cries out at the pain, a helpless, faltering note. "I have no home." Loki breathes against his brother's lips, "Or don't you remember? As I recall you were quite instrumental in its destruction." 

Thor growls, his patience worn far too thin, "If you had only listened for once instead of insisting on your imagined slights--"

"Imagined? Imagined?" Loki roars, thrusting Thor's head away away, fury in his every movement, "Did I imagine the constant insults against my skill in battle, Thor? For my sorcery? My very temperament? Did I not have to live in your shadow my entire life as Asgard showered you with every boon it could fathom? To endure your incessant arrogance and stupidity as you flaunted yourself across the Nine Realms?" Loki sneers, his features twisted into grotesque condescension, "I knew your were stupid, Thor, but this is truly appalling."

Thor bares his teeth, his agony too much . "It is not our fault you cannot see beyond yourself. Do you think we did not try? Did you truly miss all our attempts to have you join us? It was you who refused at each turn, Loki! Only you!"

Loki's fingers find his throat, short nails biting into thin flesh as he forces Thor's head back once more, "No," Loki tells him, savage, "It is you who did this, Thor. Always you."

The grip on his tangled hair tightens until his eyes water, his body caught taut between chains, "And as always, it is you who must be saved. Spoiled boy that you are; always begging for my aid, for my spells, my cunning."

Thor groans dissent and jerks in his brother's grasp. "Loki, please--"

"Please what, brother?" Croons the god, madness dancing bright in his eyes, "Please see reason? Please free you? Please prostrate myself for your peace of mind, restore Asgard to it's former glory, unsullied by unwanted truths?" 

Loki snarls. "Your parents may coddle you and allow you the world, you Midgardian companions may think you a god and free of reproach, but you have only ever been an arrogant child, Thor. You have only seen what you wanted, never what was, and I will not bow to your selfish preachings for another moment." He sneers, near feral with his own triumph, and Thor stares back into his brother's hateful gaze and wonders what his brother could have found to become to lost. 

"I will free you," the chained god vows, "I swear it, brother. I will free you from this." 

A single dark brow arches as disbelief, “I'm afraid you've lost whatever mind you had left, Thor." The fist in his hair tightens, "It is not I who will be freed.”

Thor grunts, eyes watering for the pain, "Why?"

Loki shrugs, dismissive. “Because I want to. Because you need it." He smiles and it shows teeth, "Because you, of all, must honor your debts." 

Soft lips press against his cheek, dry and reverent; a brotherly kiss. Thor does not have the heart to pull away, or the strength.

"Do not ever forget this, brother. Do not dare.”

And the chains begin to fall.


End file.
